Slideshow: Bicycling, Photography, and How to Travel the World in 1891 | Asia Society Skip to main content

Unsupported Browser Detected.
It seems the web browser you're using doesn't support some of the features of this site. For the best experience, we recommend using a modern browser that supports the features of this website. We recommend Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Microsoft Edge

  • Arts
    • Arts & Culture
      • Film
      • Literature
      • Performing Arts
    • Asia Society Museum
      • Visit
      • Exhibitions
      • Programs
      • Collection
      • Asia Society Triennial
      • The Asia Arts and Museum Network
      • Learn
    • Asia Arts Game Changer Awards
      • About
      • Honorees
      • Ceremonies
      • Photos
      • Support
    • Creative Voices of Muslim Asia
      • Resources
      • Exhibitions
      • Videos
  • Education
    • Chinese Language Learning
    • Global Education
    • Discover Asia
    • About
  • Policy
    • Asia Society Policy Institute
      • Center for China Analysis
      • Topics
      • Countries & Regions
      • Publications
      • Initiatives
      • Watch & Listen
      • Events
      • About
      • Support Us
    • Center on U.S.-China Relations
      • Home
      • About
      • Projects
      • Events
      • Reports
      • COAL + ICE
      • ChinaFile
  • Initiatives
    • Arts
      • Arts & Museum Summit
      • Asia Arts Game Changer Awards
      • Asia Society Museum: The Asia Arts & Museum Network
      • Creative Voices of Muslim Asia
      • U.S.-China Museum Summit
      • U.S.-Asia Entertainment Summit
    • Leadership
      • Asia Game Changer Awards
      • Asia 21 Next Generation Fellows
      • Diversity Leadership Initiatives
      • U.S.-China Dialogue
    • Policy
      • Asia Society Policy Institute
      • Center on U.S.-China Relations
    • Sustainability
      • Asia Society Policy Institute
      • Coal + Ice
  • Countries & Regions
    • Column One
      • Afghanistan
      • American Samoa
      • Armenia
      • Australia
      • Azerbaijan
      • Bahrain
      • Bangladesh
      • Bhutan
      • Brunei
      • Cambodia
      • Central Asia
      • China
      • Cook Islands

      • Cyprus
      • East Asia
      • East Timor
      • Fiji
      • French Polynesia
      • Georgia
      • Guam
    • Column Two
      • Hong Kong
      • India
      • Indonesia
      • Iran
      • Iraq
      • Israel
      • Japan
      • Jordan
      • Kazakhstan
      • Kiribati
      • Kuwait
      • Kyrgyzstan
      • Laos
      • Lebanon
      • Macau
      • Malaysia
      • Maldives
      • Marshall Islands
      • Micronesia
      • Mongolia
    • Column Three
      • Myanmar
      • Nauru
      • Nepal
      • New Caledonia
      • New Zealand
      • Niue
      • North Korea
      • Northern Marianas
      • Oceania
      • Oman
      • Pakistan
      • Palau
      • Palestine
      • Papua New Guinea
      • Philippines
      • Qatar
      • Samoa
      • Saudi Arabia
      • Singapore
      • Solomon Islands
    • Column Four
      • South Asia
      • Southeast Asia
      • South Korea
      • Sri Lanka
      • Syria
      • Taiwan
      • Tajikistan
      • Thailand
      • Tibet
      • Tokelau
      • Tonga
      • Turkey
      • Turkmenistan
      • Tuvalu
      • United Arab Emirates
      • Uzbekistan
      • Vanuatu
      • Vietnam
      • Wallis and Futuna
      • West Asia
      • Yemen
  • Current Affairs
    • Topics
      • Business
      • Climate Change
      • Governance
    • Programming
      • Beyond the Headlines
      • Business of Asia
    • Center on U.S.-China Relations
      • Home
      • About
      • Projects
      • Reports
      • Past Events
      • ChinaFile
  • Look & Listen
    • Asia Society Magazine
    • ChinaFile
    • Podcasts
    • Video Gallery
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
  • Visit
    • Visit Us
      • Hong Kong
      • New York
      • Texas
    • Global Network
      • Australia
      • France
      • India
      • Japan
      • Korea
      • Northern California
      • Philippines
      • Southern California
      • Switzerland
      • Washington, D.C.
  • About
    • About Asia Society
    • Inclusion & Diversity
    • Background & History
    • Board of Trustees
    • Senior Leadership
    • Global Staff
    • Global Council
    • Careers
    • Interns and Volunteers
    • Financial Statements
    • For the Media
      • Press Releases
  • Support
    • The Campaign for Asia Society
    • Corporate Engagement
      • Business Council
      • Technology and Innovation Council
      • Global Talent and Diversity Council
      • Rising Executives Network
      • Enhancements to Membership
      • Corporate Membership
      • Global Corporate Leaders
    • Membership
    • Donate
    • Donor Privacy Statement
ASIABLOG
Subscribe
Search
  • Arts
    • Arts & Culture
      • Film
      • Literature
      • Performing Arts
    • Asia Society Museum
      • Visit
      • Exhibitions
      • Programs
      • Collection
      • Asia Society Triennial
      • The Asia Arts and Museum Network
      • Learn
    • Asia Arts Game Changer Awards
      • About
      • Honorees
      • Ceremonies
      • Photos
      • Support
    • Creative Voices of Muslim Asia
      • Resources
      • Exhibitions
      • Videos
  • Education
    • Chinese Language Learning
    • Global Education
    • Discover Asia
    • About
  • Policy
    • Asia Society Policy Institute
      • Center for China Analysis
      • Topics
      • Countries & Regions
      • Publications
      • Initiatives
      • Watch & Listen
      • Events
      • About
      • Support Us
    • Center on U.S.-China Relations
      • Home
      • About
      • Projects
      • Events
      • Reports
      • COAL + ICE
      • ChinaFile
  • Initiatives
    • Arts
      • Arts & Museum Summit
      • Asia Arts Game Changer Awards
      • Asia Society Museum: The Asia Arts & Museum Network
      • Creative Voices of Muslim Asia
      • U.S.-China Museum Summit
      • U.S.-Asia Entertainment Summit
    • Leadership
      • Asia Game Changer Awards
      • Asia 21 Next Generation Fellows
      • Diversity Leadership Initiatives
      • U.S.-China Dialogue
    • Policy
      • Asia Society Policy Institute
      • Center on U.S.-China Relations
    • Sustainability
      • Asia Society Policy Institute
      • Coal + Ice
  • Countries & Regions
    • Column One
      • Afghanistan
      • American Samoa
      • Armenia
      • Australia
      • Azerbaijan
      • Bahrain
      • Bangladesh
      • Bhutan
      • Brunei
      • Cambodia
      • Central Asia
      • China
      • Cook Islands

      • Cyprus
      • East Asia
      • East Timor
      • Fiji
      • French Polynesia
      • Georgia
      • Guam
    • Column Two
      • Hong Kong
      • India
      • Indonesia
      • Iran
      • Iraq
      • Israel
      • Japan
      • Jordan
      • Kazakhstan
      • Kiribati
      • Kuwait
      • Kyrgyzstan
      • Laos
      • Lebanon
      • Macau
      • Malaysia
      • Maldives
      • Marshall Islands
      • Micronesia
      • Mongolia
    • Column Three
      • Myanmar
      • Nauru
      • Nepal
      • New Caledonia
      • New Zealand
      • Niue
      • North Korea
      • Northern Marianas
      • Oceania
      • Oman
      • Pakistan
      • Palau
      • Palestine
      • Papua New Guinea
      • Philippines
      • Qatar
      • Samoa
      • Saudi Arabia
      • Singapore
      • Solomon Islands
    • Column Four
      • South Asia
      • Southeast Asia
      • South Korea
      • Sri Lanka
      • Syria
      • Taiwan
      • Tajikistan
      • Thailand
      • Tibet
      • Tokelau
      • Tonga
      • Turkey
      • Turkmenistan
      • Tuvalu
      • United Arab Emirates
      • Uzbekistan
      • Vanuatu
      • Vietnam
      • Wallis and Futuna
      • West Asia
      • Yemen
  • Current Affairs
    • Topics
      • Business
      • Climate Change
      • Governance
    • Programming
      • Beyond the Headlines
      • Business of Asia
    • Center on U.S.-China Relations
      • Home
      • About
      • Projects
      • Reports
      • Past Events
      • ChinaFile
  • Look & Listen
    • Asia Society Magazine
    • ChinaFile
    • Podcasts
    • Video Gallery
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
  • Visit
    • Visit Us
      • Hong Kong
      • New York
      • Texas
    • Global Network
      • Australia
      • France
      • India
      • Japan
      • Korea
      • Northern California
      • Philippines
      • Southern California
      • Switzerland
      • Washington, D.C.
  • About
    • About Asia Society
    • Inclusion & Diversity
    • Background & History
    • Board of Trustees
    • Senior Leadership
    • Global Staff
    • Global Council
    • Careers
    • Interns and Volunteers
    • Financial Statements
    • For the Media
      • Press Releases
  • Support
    • The Campaign for Asia Society
    • Corporate Engagement
      • Business Council
      • Technology and Innovation Council
      • Global Talent and Diversity Council
      • Rising Executives Network
      • Enhancements to Membership
      • Corporate Membership
      • Global Corporate Leaders
    • Membership
    • Donate
    • Donor Privacy Statement

Slideshow: Bicycling, Photography, and How to Travel the World in 1891

July 31st, 2015
"Another view taken in Athens at the R. R. station. Allen, Kapsembelis, and Gurdjian cooling off," February 5, 1891, Collection of the UCLA Library Special Collections
(from original negative envelope) "Crossing the bridge from Pera to Stamboul," March 21, 1891, Collection of the UCLA Library Special Collections
William Sachtleben’s Humber bicycle at rest in Constantinople draws a crowd of spectators.  Background: Hagia Sophia and Thomas Allen on his bicycle, March 21, 1891, Collection of the UCLA Library Special Collections
William Sachtleben riding along the banks of the Kizil River, in central Anatolia, April 21, 1891, Collection of the UCLA Library Special Collections
“The mosque of a Mogul sovereign of Irak at Sultania as seen from the road,” August 8, 1891, Collection of the UCLA Library Special Collections
"Another view of the old Turkish Mosque, the crowd opening ranks for me," February 24, 1891, Collection of the UCLA Library Special Collections
A hired guard helps William Sachtleben carry his bicycle and gear across a stream in Turkey, May 26, 1891, Collection of the UCLA Library Special Collections
“The scenery nearing Bey Bazar showing the various colors in layers. A volcanic district. After leaving Nalikahn,” April 9, 1891, Collection of the UCLA Library Special Collections
Round Trip: Bicycling Asia Minor, 1891, Installation view, Asia Society Texas Center, 2015, Photo by Will Michels
Round Trip: Bicycling Asia Minor, 1891, Installation view, Asia Society Texas Center, 2015, Photo by Will Michels
Enlarge Hide captions
Related
The exhibition Round Trip: Bicycling Asia Minor, 1891 is now on view at Asia Society Texas Center through September 27. Learn more

Traveling this summer? Draw inspiration from two globetrotters whose century-old story invites reflection on technology and the evolution of travel.

In the summer of 1890, new college graduates William Sachtleben and Thomas Allen, Jr. set off to circle the globe on their new “safety” bicycles. The two young men documented their travels using two novel compact Kodak film cameras to record some 1,200 circular images from Europe, Asia, and North America during their epic journey. Three years, three continents, and 18,000 miles later, the cyclists’ travel accounts made them international celebrities and helped introduce cycling and photography to mainstream America.

Sachtleben and Allen’s story is the focal point of Round Trip: Bicycling Asia Minor, 1891, a photography exhibition currently on view at Asia Society Texas Center in Houston, featuring forty-two black-and-white photographs taken by the cyclists. The images chronicle adventures in what is now Greece, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The exhibition is organized and circulated by the Fowler Museum at UCLA and co-sponsored by the UCLA Library Special Collections.

Guest curator and author David V. Herlihy spoke with Asia Blog to share more about the story.

What has made this story so compelling to you and to exhibition viewers?

There is something universally appealing about a bold, youthful adventure, undertaken to explore foreign lands and cultures. The two young men making the journey, Will Sachtleben and his pal, Thomas G. Allen, Jr., are especially intriguing. Graduates of Washington University in St. Louis, they were steeped in the classics and great admirers of ancient civilization.

At the same time, they were exploiting two exciting new technologies that were revolutionizing two appealing but prohibitive products: the bicycle and the camera. Their new-fangled “safety” bicycles (the prototype of the present day vehicle) were about to topple the fleet but dangerous conventional “high-wheeler,” and bring the joys of cycling to the masses. Similarly, their point-and-shoot Kodak cameras were destined to make photography an affordable and popular pursuit. The images, many showing the astonished faces of citizens witnessing these marvels for the first time, underscore the novelty and importance of this “world tour.”

What does this exhibition tell us about how technological advances (particularly in photography and travel) have changed the world in the last century?

The safety bicycle would prove especially powerful as a catalyst for social and technological change. It is not an exaggeration to say that Allen and Sachtleben, by advocating this new vehicle, helped to spark the great bicycle boom of the mid-1890s. That would have immense repercussions. In particular, the bicycle helped to accelerate dress reform and give millions, including women, a newfound sense of freedom and mobility. The boom would literally pave the way for the automobile and our present way of life.

The compact Kodak film camera, which replaced bulky conventional cameras that required glass plates and much expertise, also captured the public’s imagination and became a new tool for communication, much like today’s cell phones.

What is your favorite image from the collection?

That’s tough to choose! I would have to go with the one showing Allen sitting at a café near the Athens train station and having a drink with two pals, simply because it captures a pivotal moment of the tour. Thanks to Sachtleben’s diary, also in UCLA’s collection, we know the full back story. Allen is about to board a train to London, to bring back a new pair of bicycles for the ride across Asia, their fragile London-made bicycles having already broken down. He has disguised himself in elegant attire borrowed from a wealthy Greek friend who is also in the photograph. An Armenian rebel is the other gentleman in the photo. Having read a great deal about these individuals in the diary, it was gratifying to me to see their images.


Guest curator and author David Herlihy.

Any other interesting stories you uncovered while putting this exhibition together?

Yes! I discovered a most remarkable “back story.” When I first learned of UCLA’s Sachtleben collection, I was of course eager to know how it got there. Finally, after a great deal of research, I determined that the man in question was the former husband of the donor to the UCLA collection, and I learned his identity: Paul Montague. I was elated to find that he is alive and well, still living in Texas. I went to his ranch and recorded an interview with him. Briefly, it appears that when Sachtleben vacated his old house in Houston around 1950 (a few years before his death), he left behind a small valise in the attic, crammed full of mementos from his various turn-of-the century adventures, including his “round the world trip,” his return to Turkey to search for a missing fellow cyclist, and a tour of the Klondike during a gold rush.

In 1966, workmen were tearing down the house, selling the valuable lumber from the frame and burning unwanted materials in a bonfire raging in the backyard. One day Paul was in line to buy lumber, and he saw a workman appear in an attic window, holding a small valise. He then pitched it toward the bonfire. Fortunately, he missed his target, and the valise hit the ground and burst open, spewing old photos on the lawn. Paul, an amateur photographer and history buff, saw the material and rushed over to examine it. Sensing that these relics had historical importance, he persuaded the workmen to let him keep the valise and the remaining contents. Included were the negatives of the images we’re showing in Round Trip.


This interview has been edited for length.

Related Links

  • Round Trip: Bicycling Asia Minor
arts
multimedia
photography
asia society texas center
william sachtleben
thomas allen jr
exhibitions
uzbekistan
turkmenistan
iran
turkey
asiablog
david herlihy

About the Author

Profile picture for user Tim Lau
Tim Lau is a Content Producer at Asia Society. He is a New Jersey native and has also lived in Greater Chicago and Washington, DC.
 @TimCLau
About
  • Mission & History
  • Our People
  • Become a Member
  • Career Opportunities
  • Corporate Involvement
visit us
  • Hong Kong
  • New York
  • Texas
global network
  • Australia
  • France
  • India
  • Japan
  • Korea
  • Northern California
  • Philippines
  • Southern California
  • Switzerland
  • Washington, D.C.
resources
  • Arts
  • Asia Society Magazine
  • ChinaFile
  • Current Affairs
  • Education
  • For Kids
  • Policy
  • Video
shop
  • AsiaStore
initiatives
  • Arts & Museum Summit
  • Asia 21 Next Generation Fellows
  • Asia Arts Game Changer Awards
  • Asia Game Changer Awards
  • Asia Society Museum: The Asia Arts & Museum Network
  • Asia Society Policy Institute
  • Asian Women Empowered
  • Center on U.S.-China Relations
  • Coal + Ice
  • Creative Voices of Muslim Asia
  • Global Cities Education Network
  • Global Talent Initiatives
  • U.S.-Asia Entertainment Summit
  • U.S.-China Dialogue
  • U.S.-China Museum Summit
Connect
Email Signup For the media
Asia Society logo
©2023 Asia Society | Privacy Statement | Accessibility | Terms & Conditions | Sitemap | Contact

Asia Society takes no institutional position on policy issues and has no affiliation with any government.
The views expressed by Asia Society staff, fellows, experts, report authors, program speakers, board members, and other affiliates are solely their own. Learn more.

 

 

  • Visit Us
  • Hong Kong
  • New York
  • Texas
  • Global Network
  • Australia
  • France
  • India
  • Japan
  • Korea
  • Northern California
  • Philippines
  • Southern California
  • Switzerland
  • Washington, DC